Oscars 2012: The ceremony - in pictures

Oscars 2012: The ceremony - in pictures

The 84th Academy Awards saw host Billy Crystal bring the great and the good of Hollywood to the stage to hand awards to their fellow thesps.
Xan Brooks liveblogged the entire ceremony and brought you all the awards as they happened. Here's the best of the night in pictures

Here's Tom Hanks, who's on hand to grant the winner of the cinematography Oscar the gift of eternal life / a modestly-sized gold-plated statuette. The envelope he's holding reads "Black", but we'll need a tambourine and a mute elderly gentleman to work that one out ...

Don't be fooled by the sombre expression. A Separation director Asghar Farhadi is THIS happy to have won the best foreign language film award. So happy in fact, that we can barely fit just how happy into the frame

Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow present the best documentary Oscar. Downey Jr. had a documentary crew filming him while he presented the award. We have a documentary crew filming us as we watch the documentary crew filming Downey Jr. They're being filmed by a documentary crew filming the documentary crew filming etc etc etc

"You're only two years older than me. Where have you been all my life?!". Christopher Plummer collects his best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in Beginners. "I would share this with [co-star] Ewan McGregor if I had any decency," he said. "But I don't."

So very, very close. Jean Dujardin holds himself back from wrenching the Oscar from Natalie Portman's hands, then throwing that most tantilising of all accolades aloft while screaming "OUI! OUI! OUUUUUIIIIIIIII!" ... until he loses his voice. Again

Best actress Meryl Streep. Five decades, 17 nominations, three wins ... and absolutely no inkling that - according to Academy regulation 3:4.3.a.b..2 - she is now legally compelled to wear only gold for the rest of her life. Poor thing

... Jean Dujardin stares, similarly entranced. Only Uggie the Dog keeps his head. He's seen it before. Oscar shines all too briefly. Then turns his gaze to the next new thing. Ukrainian cell animation perhaps? Or Nouvelle Nouvelle Nouvelle Vague? Who can really say. Uggie wouldn't, even if he could. Not one to speculate, that pup. Too much of a pro. Atta boy

Xan Brooks: You've clocked how your choices matched up with ours, other readers' and those of the Oscar voters. And you may have noticed one or two of our stories about the awards. Now tell us how we can do better next year